Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-03-28
swings out to let our ministering ones
come out. All are one in Christ-Chris-
tians on earth and saints in heaven.

swings out to let our ministering ones
come out. All are one in Christ-Chris-
tisns on earth and saints in heaven.
One army Of the living God,
at His command We bow;
Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now.
Swing in, o blessed doorl until all the
earth shall 60 in and live. Swing out
until all the heavens come forth to cele-
/ brate the victory.
But, further, it is door with fasten-
ings. The Bible says of Noah: "The
Lord shut him in" A vessel without
bulwarks or doors would not be safe
vessel to go in. When Noah and his
family heard the fastening of the door of
the ark, they were very glad.
Without those doors were fastened, the
first heavy surge of the sea would
have whelmed them; and they might as
well have persisted outside the ark as
inside the ark. "The Lord shut him in"
o, the perfect safety of the ark! The
surf of the sea and the lightnings OF the
sky may be twisted into garland of
snow and fire-deep to deep, storm to
storm, darkness to darkness; but once in
the ark, all is well. "God shut him in"
There comes upon the good man a
deluge of financial trouble. He had his
thousands to lend; now he cannot borrow
dollar. He once owned store in New
York, and had branch houses in Boston,
Philadelphia, and New Orleans. He
owned four horses, and employed man
to keep the dust of his coach, phaetOn,
carriage, and curricIe; now he has hard
work to get shoes in which to walk. The
great deep of commercial disaster was
I hyCE bon md nd ff nd
the hurricane deck, the waves struck
him. But he was safely sheltered from
the storm. "The Lord shut him in"
A food of domestic troubles fell on him.
Sickness and bereavement came. The
rain pelted. The wind blew. The
heavens are aflame. All the gardens of
earthly delight are washed away. The
fountains of Joy are buried fifteen cubits
deep. But, standing by the empty crib,
and in the desolated nursery, ana IN the
doleful hal, once airing with merry voices,
now silent forever, he cried: "The Lord
gave, the Lord hath taken away; blessed
be the name of the Lord" "The Lord
shut him in" All the sins of lifetime
Clamored for his overthrow. The broken
vows, the dishonored Sabbaths. the
outrageous prOfanities, the misdemeanors
| of twenty years reached up their hands
to the door of the ark to pull him out.
The boundless ocean Of his sin sur
rounded his soul, bowling like a
simeon, Taving like an euro
! clydOn. But, looking out of the window,
! he saw his sins sink like lead into the
depths of the sea. The dove Of heaven
! brought an olive branch to the ark. The
wrath of the billow only pushed him to-
ward heaven. "The Lord shut him IN. -
The same door fastcnings that kept
Noah in keep the world out. am glad
to know that when man reaches heaven
all earthly troubles are done with him.
Here he NAV have had it hard 70 get
bread for his family; there he will never
hunger any more. Here he may have
wept bitterly; there "the Lamb that is in
the midst of the throne will lead him to
| living fountains of water, and God will
wipe away all tears from his eyes" Here
he may have hard work to get house
but in my Fathers house are many man
sionS, and rent-day never comes. Here
there are death-beds, and cOtli2s, and
graves; there no sickness, no weary
watching, no choking cough, no cOnsum-
iDS fever, no Chattering Chill, no tOlling
! bell, no grave. The sorrows Of life shall
come up and knock at the door, but 40
admittance. The perplexitieS Of life snail
come up and knock on the door. but no
admittance. Safe forever! All the agony
of earth in one waye dsshing against the
buIwarks of the ship of celestial light
shall not break them down. Howl on, ye
| winds, and rage, ye seas! The Lord
| ''the Lord shut him in -
0, what grand old door, so vide, so
easily swung both ways. and with such
sure fastentEgs. No burglars key can
pick that lock. No sWarthy arm of hell
can shove back the bolt. [ rejoice that l
do not ask you to come aboard a crazy
craft with leaking hulk, and broken helm,
and unfRstened door; but an ark 50 cublts
wide aud 800 cubitS long, ana q door
so large that the round earth, without
grazing the posts, might be bowle4 in.
Now if the ark OF Christ is so grand a
place in which to live and die and tri-
umph, come into the ark. Know well
| that the door that shut Noah in shut the
world out; and though, when the pitIless
storm came pelting on their heads they
! beat upon the door, saying: "Let me
| in! Let me inn the door did
not open. For 100 years they
were invited. They expected TO
come in, but the antedeluvians said ::
owe must cultivate these fields; we must
! be worth more tiocks Of sheep and herds
of cattle; we will wait until we get a
little older; we will enjoy our old farm a
! Ii tie longer" But meanwhile the storm
was brewing. The fountains OF heaven
were filling up. The pry was being placed
! beneath the foundations of the great deep.
! The last year had come, the last month,
the last week, the last day,
the last hour, the last moment.
In an awful dash, an ocean dropped
from the sky, and another rolled
up from beneath; and God rolled the
earth and sky into one wave of universal
destruction.
So men now put off going into the ark.
They say they will wait twenty years first.
They will have a little longer time with
their worldly associates. They will
wait until they get older. They say:
"You cannot expect man of my attain
ments and of my position to surrender
myself Just now. But before the storm
comes | will go in. Yes, will I know
! what l am about. Trust me" After
awhile, one night about y O'Clock, going
! home, he passes q sCaff ,ldiug as 8 gust of